"Of course one knew that the way to the peak was never by the book, that hazard and all the rest must play its part, just as action and aleatory painting formed an at least theoretically important sector in the modern art spectrum. But some such mountaineering image drifted through his mind. One had acquired the best equipment one could afford- and one looked up. There on the summit stood a smirking old satyr in carpet slippers, delightedly damning all common sense and calculation."